Really? A Blue House Built On Stilts?

This house made headlines this week as it sold in multiple offers for over the asking price.

I’ll be brutally honest (for a change) and tell you that I think this is nothing but a novelty, and there’s nothing practical about this home…

And here’s something I forgot to mention in the video: there are no closets! Not a single closet in the entire house! No front hall coat closet, no storage closet, and no closets in the bedrooms. I suppose you can just throw your clothing on a pile in the floor of the room…

Hey, I think this is a ‘cool’ house; who wouldn’t!

But it’s only really cool when you’re eight years old, you drive by with your parents, and you say, “Look, look, that house is blue! Do you think elves live there? Or maybe the Mad Hatter?”

I think it’s cool today in a “huh, wow, neat” kind of way, but would I want to live there? Would I want to own this place? Would I sell it to a client?

Despite all this, there is a feel-good ending to this story.

Rumor has it – the seller took less money to sell the property to somebody he liked; somebody who he thought would cherish the home and see his vision, rather than simply accept the highest offer from a buyer who he didn’t identify with.

And you know what? It’s not the first time I’ve heard of this happening, and it won’t be the last.

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JHsays:

As Potato points out, this really is the perfect house for those worried about zombies. Not only can you rest easy knowing there are no hidden spaces for zombies to hide in, but if Toronto ever gets so overrun it’s no longer worth hanging around, all you need to do is attach a big helium balloon to it and take a Sawzall to the four stilts.

Or, if the zombie apocalypse doesn’t happen for another decade or two and we’re all out of helium (I blame Bill Clinton) by then, you can still try hiring a Sikorsky S-64 (or two – I don’t know how heavy that beast is). Come to think of it, that might be a smarter choise anyway if you’re interested in having some say in where your new home will relocate to.

If I could give you one piece of advice for your videos. Buy a microphone and a small tripod. Shoot numerous b-roll shots of the house and record your monologue on your microphone at phone. The sound will be better quality and you could lay an instrumental music track underneath the video.

I don’t know if you have the time, resources or interest in doing that. Just my two cents as a professional film editor.

That house is pretty kooky but my favourites are the houses on Bond Ave off Leslie in North York.

I think that this house is exceptionally interesting both visually and from a design perspective, and when complete (assuming it isn’t at the moment) could represent a very good use of city space.

That being said, I suspect its livability probably takes a backseat to less important aesthetic factors. The articles all make it seem like a 23 by 105 foot lot is tiny (which, for Toronto, it isn’t) – you can fit a decent-sized house on anything more than 19×80 – and I definitely wouldn’t want to live on Coxwell, which is a deceptively busy street.

On stilts, one way in, across a narrow choke point with overwatch, no closets to hide in… this looks like the perfect house for someone awaiting the zombie apocalypse, or suffering from general paranoid delusions.

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The preceding commentary is the opinion of David Fleming and does not represent the interests or opinions of Bosley Real Estate Ltd., Brokerage or the Toronto Real Estate Board. Therefore, Bosley Real Estate will not be held responsible and/or liable for any of the opinions herein.